Tuesday, October 05, 2004

By now it's pretty apparent I believe that there is rampant misconduct going on among liberals in order to stifle conservative voices. Well, apparently, in a couple of places, liberals and conservatives are playing tit-for-tat:

Do NOT stoop to this level!!!!!! ANY of you!!!!!!! But ESPECIALLY not conservatives!!!!!!!!! Liberals are dead freaking wrong, I am firmly convinced, but they have a RIGHT to be wrong and a RIGHT to express those wrong opinions without fear of reprisal or harrassment!!!!!!

Look at the symbol at the top of my blog. That's what it's about. If you just apply the constitution AND THE PRINCIPLES ON WHICH IT IS BASED to yourself, then you invalidate it!!!!! If you are a conservative and value our republic and our constitution as much as I, then THIS IS NOT HOW WE ARE TO DO THINGS!!!!!!! We outreason them, we outvote them, we outcampaign them. But we do NOT outcheat them!!!!

Call from the Feared Redhead. She's been feeling the effects of her hyperemesis again (no vomiting, but lingering nausea), so she called her OB/Gyn. Apparently I'll be heading to urgent care after work to meet her, she's been told to report in for another rehydrating IV.

No panic this time, but I really hate seeing her suffer like this. Makes me feel like developing P.I.T.S..

She asked me to request all your prayers.

Update:The folks at U.C. wouldn't give her an IV, despite what she'd been told by her OB/Gyn's office, because her urine sample was mostly water (don't ask). So now she has to wait until tomorrow, talk to her OB/Gyn again, subject herself (and me by default, but I'd rather not go into details) to some embarassing testing procedures, then go back.

Bashir ad-Dabbash, 38, was the most senior leader within Palestinian territories of the group that is sworn to destroying the Jewish state and at the forefront of a suicide bombing campaign during a 4-year-old Palestinian uprising.

And start counting the seconds until the left starts excoriating Israel for this attack. Against a man who lead a group, and I quote, "sworn to destroying the Jewish state".

If there's a more clear-cut case of exercizing a nation's right to preserve her sovereignty, I'd be hard pressed to think of it. Yet this will be portrayed as more violent oppression by the Zionists.

If that outcry comes, and I am certain it will, I defy anyone to offer a rational explanation for that outcry aside from ignorance or antisemitism.

A while back I blogged on how Kerry's attitude towards and comments about our allies on Iraq was in sharp contrast to his claims of being more capable of diplomacey -- that while he claims that he will build consensus, what he's really doing is alienating the countries that are already in our side, in order to gamble that he'll be able to placate those who oppose us.

President Bush brought the same point up during the debate last week -- pointing out all of the countries that are in the coalition, and telling Kerry that he was insulting their leaders. Kerry blew it off, paying lip service to them, but claiming that only US and British contributions were significant.

And how easy was it to predict the result? That's an even bigger slap in the face to our allies. The first one of them has called him on it -- and this is an ally who has been candid about their misgivings regarding Iraq. From Drudge:

Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski has slammed Dem president hopeful John Kerry for not recognizing Poland's contributions and sacrifice to the war in Iraq.

"It is sad that a senator with 20 years of experience does not recognize Polish contribution. This is immoral," Kwasniewski told FACTS in an interview commenting on the US Presidential Debate.

"It is sad that a senator with 20 years of experience underestimates Polish sacrifice, this is sad."I agree, Mr. President.

The Polish President added however that one should consider this was a part of the ongoing electoral campaign.

That doesn't really mitigate the insult, and I, as an American, am sorry you had to hear it.

People criticize Bush for alienating the world. But let's be honest -- a majority of the countries who oppose us now already opposed us before. And most of them will still oppose the US, regardless of who wins the election and what action that president takes. But Bush has showed loyalty to the countries that have stood beside us through it all -- Kerry, on the other hand, manages to alienate them, without any real evidence that he'll endear us to our foes.

An unknown suspect fired several shots into the Bearden office of the Bush/Cheney re-election campaign Tuesday morning.

The headquarters are located at 4618 Kingston Pike, next to Noveau Classics and in the same shopping plaza as Long's Drugstore.

According to Knoxville Police Department officers on the scene Tuesday, it is believed that the two separate shots were fired from a car sometime between 6:30 am and 7:15 am. One shot shattered the glass in the front door and the other cracked the glass in another of the front doors.

There were no witnesses to the shooting. A customer at a nearby dry cleaning store noticed that shattered glass on the sidewalk in front of the headquarters and called police.

Volunteers and staffers at the campaign office say they have no clues as to who might have committed the crime. However, they add that the shooting makes them even more enthusiastic and energized about working for their candidates.

One of the responses you'll get when you take the time, like I have, to point out the kind of oppressive behavior exhibited by leftists to stifle conservative voices, is that these are isolated incidents, by extremist elements who do not reflect the majority of liberals, and that not all Democrats think that way.

Oh, really? Let's put aside for a moment the fact that the leadership of the Democratic party is increasingly inclined to embrace those elements and even use them for their ends. Let's set aside the fact that the Democratic party recognizes that without the support of that extreme but growing element, they cannot compete politically. Let's even set aside the fact that the rhetoric of some of those extreme elements is not only not decried by Democratic leadership, but actually affords those who utter that rhetoric celebrity status in liberal circles.

Let's for the moment and for the sake of argument take only the words of a mainstream, and quite influential member of that Democratic leadership. Like, oh, say, their Vice Presidential cadidate:

Dem vp hopeful John Edwards cut to the chase last night on ABCNEWS NIGHTLINE:

ABC'S BOB WOODRUFF: "He has avoided the kind of negative attacks that can make national news, although recently, he has stepped up his rhetoric."

SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D-NC) (clip of a speech): "I'd say if you live in the United States of America and you vote for George Bush, you've lost your mind."

WOODRUFF: "There's been criticism that you have been too soft."

EDWARDS: "Do I seem soft to you?"

So apparently that's the kind of tolerant rhetoric the left is about, huh? And yet we're told that Republicans are the ones stifling dissent. In fact, in a comment on the blogs for Bush Blog post about this, one liberal said, This is a thoroughly ridiculous article considering the way the Republicans and the Bush Administration has demonized dissent.

My response then, and now, was to point that person to the articles I've documented regarding this issue (Here, Here, and Here for starters), and suggest that perhaps the liberals need to do a little beam removal from their own eyes.

First they came for Logic, and I did not speak out, for I did not think logically. Then they came for Reason, and I did not speak out, for I did not think reasonably. Then they came for Thesis and Synthesis, and I did not speak out, for I did not think synthetically. Finally they came for me, and I could no longer think for myself.